La meravigliosa ed elegante "Mariette" è uno schooner aurico disegnato da Nathanael Greene Herreshoff nel 1915 e costruito dai cantieri Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, per Frederick J.Brown, un industriale tessile di Boston, che ne sarà l'armatore per 12 anni. Il proprietario successivo, Francis K. Crowninshield, la rinomina "Cleopatra's Barge" e la tiene sino agli inizi della Seconda Guerra Mondiale, quando Mariette viene requisita dalla US Navy ed impiegata come naviglio guardacoste.
Venduta alla fine del conflitto se ne perdono le tracce nei Caraibi, dove viene "riscoperta" negli anni '80: portata in Italia, la goletta riceve il suo primo restauro ai Cantieri Beconcini di Spezia.
Acquistata nel '94 da Thomas J. Perkins, americano, già armatore di importanti barche moderne, Mariette ritorna ai Cantieri Beconcini per il restauro finale, sotto la guida di Tom Eaton, comandante di un' altra famosa goletta, il Puritan, riacquistando il suo originale armamento aurico.
Attualmente regatta regolarmente, soprattutto nel Mediterraneo.
| Name: | Mariette |
| Type of Boat: | Two Masted Gaff Schooner |
| Designer: | Nathanael Greene Herreshoff |
| Built by: | Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, USA |
| Yard No: | 698 |
| Year Built: | 1915 |
| Construction: | Steel hull, teak deck. |
| Displacement: | 165 tons. |
| LOA m / ft: | 42m / 138' |
| LOD m / ft: | 33.50m / 108' 2" |
| LWL m / ft: | 24.30m / 80' |
| Beam m / ft: | 7.20m / 23' 7" |
| Draft m / ft: | 4.20m / 13' 7" |
| Sail area: | 1033 sq.m. / 11.100 sq.ft |
Mariette is a two masted gaff schooner designed by Nathanael Greene Herreshoff in 1915 and built in the shipyard of Herreshoff Manufacturing Co., Bristol, Rhode Island, USA, for Mr Frederick J.Brown, a Boston textile manufacturer, who will sail on her for the next 12 years. The following owner, Francis K. Crowninshield, renames her "Cleopatra's Barge", keeping her till the WWII beginning, when Mariette will be confiscated by the US Navy, and empolyed as a coastguard vessel.
Dismissed by the US Navy at the end of the conflict, the traces of Mariette goes lost in the Caribbean Sea; in the 80ties she is discovered again, brought to Italy, at the Beconcini Shipyards of La Spezia, where she undergoes a first revamping.
In 1994 Mariette is bought by the American Tom Perkins, who put her through a refit in 1995 at Cantiere Beconcini in La Spezia, Italy, restoring the yacht to her former glory with her eye-catching gaff topsail rig.
She is now a regular on the Mediterranean circuit and in 2005 Tom Perkins finally sold her to a French owner who continues to race her competitively.